Iraq is in the midst of an agricultural disaster

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Iraq in midst of ‘agricultural disaster’

Nizar Latif, Foreign Correspondent

KUT, IRAQ // Just before harvest time the fields around the city of Kut used to be thick with barley, sunflowers and maize. This year large areas were left bare as farmers fell victim to a water shortage that has pushed agriculture in Iraq to the brink.

“We are suffering, all of us,” said Falah Mohammed al Dirian, a local farmer. “It has been one crisis followed by another. There is no rain, there is no water in the rivers, the land is ruined by salt, we cannot afford fuel for our generators and there is no help from the government.”

Mr al Dirian’s family has been working the land for generations but the 38-year-old said he now sees no future in it.

“All of the farmers I know are encouraging their children to get different types of work, mainly in the Iraqi police and security forces,” he said. “There is not much money in farming now. In fact we are losing money these days.”

There are 22,000 people living in the 14 villages of the Al Mzak district along on the Tigris River near Kut, the capital of Wasit province. Most of them are dependent on farming for a living and are now threatened by rising poverty.

<snip>

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081212/FOREIGN/439906308/1002